


Sprites

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Fantasia (1940)
Genre: Gen, Magic, Mash-up, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 11:58:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8889928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: As the sun set, the sprites began to wake.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cnoocy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cnoocy/gifts).



As the sun set, the sprites began to wake. One by one, they emerged from their sleep as the darkness alerted them to the fact that it was now time to play. After a quick stretch and a flutter of their wings, each sprite took flight, lighting up the night with their small glow.

Sprites danced along the leaves and spiderwebs, leaving drops of dew behind. With every step or flick of their wrist, a drop of water remained, showing all that they had passed that way. To them it was a game, a way to play and pass the time. They thought nothing of covering a leaf in dew, or in laying a trail of drops across the loamy ground. It was simply a fun challenge, to leave their mark before another sprite got there first. By morning, it would look like the entire world was covered in glistening gems thanks to the sprites’ dew.

Their cousins did the same in the cold, sliding along the frozen streams and dormant branches and leaving frosty trails in their wake. Occasionally they encountered one another as the seasons were changing, but largely the two kept to their own games. After all, it wasn’t much fun to leave a dew trail when someone else came along and froze it!

So, with no interference, the sprites danced long into the night, chasing each other, creating patterns, playing games. And all the while coating the world in fine trails of dew.

}}o{{

But little did the sprites know, their actions had a greater consequence. For, with every drop of dew, and every flake of frost, a tiny grain of their magic was left behind as well. The sprites never noticed, as they always had more magic, but eventually the rest of the world noticed. Eventually, after nights and weeks and seasons passed, the magic built up in the world around them. Seeds and eggs absorbed it, and soon plants and creatures were born with magic of their own.

It started with the plants; leaves and flowers moving on their own. It started with just a flicker of movement - a sway when there was no breeze. This was followed by more and more motions, until leaves, vines, and petals all began moving of their own volition. They couldn’t travel on their own yet, like the sprites, but that was only a matter of time.

}}o{{

Time had passed, and now flowers and mushrooms danced to their own tunes, just as the sprites did, creating entertaining ballets and reels. The sprites discovered these, and watched with fascination as this once-stationary flora now spun around entertainingly. For them it was simply a new game.

Vines slithered along branches, dodging the sprites as they tried to coat them in dew. Mushrooms ducked and bobbed, playing hide and seek with the sprites. Flowers stood leaf to hand and danced with the sprites long into the night.

And the flowers were not the only ones. Fish, once unimaginative and simple, began to think, and to create complex social dances of their own. The magic of the sprites fairly sparkled in their watery home as the sprites peered down at them. Birds followed, and lizards, until soon many of the small animals would dance and play with the sprites.

Over time, the sprites began to wonder at these changes, but they had no intention of giving up their games, and so they put the worry from their minds. They continued to chase each other across the night, leaving dew and frost in their wakes.

}}o{{

Eventually, the magic built to greater amounts. No longer affecting just plants and simpler animals, it grew in potency within the larger animals. Now the magic manifested in huge grey and brown beasts, balls of feathers on long legs, and scaly fish-lizards. With so much magic, these elephants, hippos, ostriches, and alligators became smarter than their ancestors before them.

They built strange structures that the sprites had never seen before. In these, no longer could the sprites find leaves and flowers and spiderwebs to coat with frost and dew. Instead, everything was hard, like rock, and they raced along molded lines and clipped grass. Still, there were games to be had, and the sprites would not let this changed world stop them from their fun. There were still pools of water for the frost sprites, though not the usual nooks and crannies they were used to.

These creatures also danced, just as the flowers and fish had before them. Though they did not notice the sprites, the sprites could and did watch their mesmerizing movements. Especially the lizard-like ones, who were most active at night, just like the sprites. They never seemed to notice their small audience, though.

Eventually even stranger creatures grew; goats and horses grew horns and wings, or parts of other hairless beasts. Soon all manner of creature was frolicking around the countryside, never once noticing the sprites whose magic now ran in their very veins, or the simpler magical plants and animals who had come before them.

Night would fall, and the sprites would emerge from their homes, leaving trails of dew across glossy orange feathers and manes, or short brown hair and horns. Sometimes, though, the creatures would stay up into the night. The little two-legged horned goat animals crushed up grapes and drank them. Then they would play music and all the creatures would dance.

Their music entranced the sprites, and they danced along, spreading dew in their wake. Flowers and leaves continued to dance with them, now to music that all of them could hear. When the seasons changed, their cousins emerged, dancing along and coating with frost the grapes that the musical goat creatures seemed so fond of.

The world was full of music and games and dancing and life, and the sprites were happier than they had ever been before.

}}o{{

But as always, time passed, nights and days and seasons following each other in a never-ending pattern. And as time passed, and the sprites played their games, the amount of magic in the creatures grew, until they could barely contain it. Until eventually they couldn’t.

But the sprites didn’t know this. They just skipped along the ruins, coating them in dew and frost.


End file.
